Union Theatre Cafe in Southwark

Amazing cosy theatre in London!

Lovely place but lacking snack variety.

What a great evening we had! We watched a fantastic show and experienced friendly service.

I am absolutely disgusted with the lack of customer service at Union Theatre. After booking tickets for a show and encountering an issue, I reached out FOUR TIMES via email and made THREE phone calls to resolve the matter. No one has bothered to respond to a single one of my attempts to contact them. The show I paid for has come and gone, and yet I’m still waiting for even a basic acknowledgment from their staff. This is more than just poor customer service, it's theft! They’ve taken my money, ignored my emails and calls, and left me with nothing to show for it. The complete lack of communication and disregard for their customers is appalling. I’ll never book here again, and I strongly urge others to be wary of this theatre's non-existent customer support. Avoid them if you expect any form of respect or accountability.

Show was absolutely fantastic!!! really enjoyed show ❤️❤️❤️ theatre was amazing 🫶🫶🫶

Great little small theatre with lovely friendly staff and a relaxed vibe.

(Visited March 2024) This musical-oriented fringe theatre is a little gem! I thoroughly enjoyed Frank’s Closet. Whenever I’m due a trip to London, I always take a look at what’s on. * A great Off West End venue. As someone visiting from Manchester resident, it reminded me of 53Two and Hope Mill.

Great little theatre, tucked away in alley off union street, with a bar and space outside perfect for an interval drink.

Lovely intimate venue with studios too. Great coffee a bonus!

Saw Frank's Closet here. Great theatre and bar space and great production.

Our 5 year old Eloise really loves her Union youth theatre class here. We highly recommend the group.

Warm and friendly staff. Great space. Much needed. Please support.

Interesting bespoke theatre experience.

Went to the pantomime here, lovely little theatre venue.

Absolutely fantastic time! Watched Tinderella pantomime and to say I’ve not laughed so much in my life would be an understatement! Great cast, amazing audience engagement superb performances honestly a great panto! I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good time in the city! Looking forward to seeing next years for sure and other pantos you’ll have running during the year! Thank you for a wonderful evening!

Very naughty, brilliant pantomime.

Was a lovely venue for a drink and show

The best place to be, all good vibes great space and great fun! Right next to southwark station and a 5 min walk to waterloo so easy accessible. The community is great and Sasha makes you feel very welcome!

Wholly unprofessional and untrustworthy business.

Amazing space. Wonderful atmosphere! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

We loved the performance, the cafe was cute and the staff super friendly

Lovely little theatre saw Matilda it was Brilliant 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Helpful staff, good venue. 4 mins walk from Southwark station. Short walk to Southbank and Tate. Disruption from the trains going over it.

Friendly staff. Great Off West Theatre

Intimate, great stage, friendly staff

Lovely theatre and friendly staff.

Small but great. Show was amazing, barman was good and you can take your drinks into the show.

I paid for the play tonight 39 and my friends as well and we sat on the side and we couldn't see properly and the chairs were not so comfortable like the normal ones! And I don't understand why we set there cause there was not a number of the seat on the tickets and i felt like exempt !

Incredible shows, friendly fun staff and fantastic location

Lovely small theatre with a great café/bar, and sunny outdoor space to sit on a nice day.

Great venue and live entertainment!

Super, intimate theatre space. The front of house and bar staff were really welcoming, and the performace we saw there (Betty Blue Eyes) was outstandingly good with an enthusiastic cast who gave 110%. Nice outside space for a G & T and a buzzy, lively bar area offering pizza the night we went.

As always a great show, fun and friendly people and a lovely atmosphere! We love it here and have been coming for 7 years. So happy to be back!!

First time at the Union Theatre, had a great time, I was told it was an intimate space so I was worried before I got there but loved it felt I was a part of the performance, lots of aspiring young actors fine tuning their skills. Drinks were a good price for London and the pizza was fab and done in record time so all in all a great experience and will be back asap x

Small but intimate theatre, tucked away in South East London with a bar, refreshments area. Recommended 😊

I wanted a quiet place for a coffee and a whisky. I stumbled over this place and I loved it. I sat quietly reading for a bit listening to the applause and laughter from the stage. Then a throng of young theatre goers piled in during the interval. It suddenly turned into a vibrant London bar. It was like the bar was two different worlds.

Superb Coffee, best I’ve found locally. Amazing fresh cooked pizza and lovely people. Great place to hang out in the courtyard with friends. I hired the venue for a birthday party recently, the process was seamless and a lovely space to celebrate.

Friendly welcoming and a great place for Theatre people and amazing rehearsal space

Great place to chill out, friendly, great atmosphere 👌

Great staff, friendly and helpful. Such a unique and cool atmosphere

Lovely atmosphere, wonderful staff and fantastic show! We'll be checking out future shows here soon 😁

Feedback 4 Summer Solstice Theatre play : 1st of all I would like 2say that I visited this theatre couple times already but I never experienced Such a Sickening & Heavy Damp Smell on entry 😱 about the play : This was the Worst Play I saw in my entire Life!!! 2hours which I never get back. 3ppl play with very poor acting.... Overhyper Waiter which was very loud, female actress with accent which was hard 2understand, especially when she got exited & she start taking very fast. Lastly let's not 4get Male Acter which we could not here at all sometimes. We'll. It didn't matter anyway as it was Extremeky SLOW play with lots of unexpected delays/pauses where we were left looking at each other "is its already interval?" ... After 1st half where I was super bored btw, we were promised brilliant 2nd half, so I decided 2continue & watch. Some smart ppl left after interval & I was regretting staying... I love theatre & I am out every week 2-3x but this was very very bad.

Superb space, friendly atmosphere. Excellent. And the play we saw, Rabbit Hole, was brilliant.

A lovely environment and a really enjoyable play.

I like the new home of The Union Theatre. The venue itself has a cosy bar with outside seating. The theatre itself is a black box flexible space. It's intimate due to its size but puts on interesting productions and is a stalwart of the London fringe theatre scene. Seats are fold up hard chairs. I was comfortable enough, but some may like to bring a small cushion with them. Rehearsal rooms are also available here. Please note, it doesn't look like they take cash here so be prepared to pay by card at the bar/box office.

A quirky little place where the bar staff are always so pleasant and polite with plenty of banter. The show's are very cool and gives a platform for upcoming actors, directors and writers. 😊

Just a venue that offers great vslue and a wide artistic range

Amazing venue for alternative theatre

Fantastic night watching Voices of tomorrow. Exceptional value and drinks well priced. Stars were brilliant

Great little theatre, bar & cafe. No frills but worth a visit

Great little theatre, quite difficult to find though. Very little signage as you walk into the alleyway, you have to know where to go in advance. Amazing feeling as you walk in though, very personal space and staff were wonderful.

Wonderful Creative Place! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Lovely intimate theatre, with a nice open and welcoming cafe/bar area!

Always great, a hidden gem with a great cast

Friendly staff. Excellent performance of "the Jazz Section". Apparently the food served during the day is fabulous.

Great cafe, great entertainment space

Saw 'Going Ape' at the Union theatre tonight, funny play with such talented actors, great timing. Really good night out at the theatre.

We dropped in for the first time for a late breakfast shortly after the opening up in mid-May 2021. My breakfast baguette was excellent, as was my wife's eggs and mushrooms. My son is a fussy eater, but they were happy to put together a breakfast for him. Coffee good. Service very friendly.

Got seated at a table then told it was reserved. Put at another table and still waiting to be served after 25min.

Fui a Union Theatre Cafe dos veces y la experiencia ha sido genial en ambas ocasiones.Antes tomaba una copa para ver la actuación en este acogedor teatro.La jovencita detrás de la barra de café fue encantadora y profesional y toda la experiencia en Union Theatre Cafe ha sido excelente.El servicio en el Café fue perfecto y las piezas fueron divertidísimas, divertidas y extremadamente agradables.

I've been here several times over the last 2-3 years and have always found it an excellent venue with great quality productions.

Didn't know it existed until last week. Mush come again for a drink and something to eat

Friendly staff , small but nice food selection prepared to order , layout not obvious but plenty of helpful staff to assist you

Lovely production of Blitz! the musical.

Great cast, production and helpful bar staff.

Saw a brilliant production of Tom Brown's Schooldays here in Jan 2020. N.B. The rows are very close together so there's limited leg room unless you're on the end of a row.

Great intimate venue ... comfortable seating... Good acoustics ..

We stopped here for tea and coffee before a show. The staff are very helpful and friendly and it's ideal before and after shows.

The staff are so very friendly, the food is sublime and the coffee is truly to die for! I'm so sad I don't live in Southwark otherwise I would go here every day. And the music selection makes me never want to leave.

Tom brown's school days..small stage packs a powerful show

One of the best fringe venues with tradition of doing good musical revivals

always good to have a venue showing fresh work.. its Spanish based ...

Mostly interesting shows, always worth checking what's on.

Lovely food and friendly welcome.

Fantastic combination of energy, creativity and talent. Green Fairy Musical in Union Theatre. Great young artists: David Perkins, Harry F. Brown, Julie Atherton, Emma Whittaker, and Georgina Hellier. Thank you guys!

Great production in a compact performance space

Beautiful, modern and with a great ethos. Wish I could always rehearse here!

Wonderful atmosphere and very good food hidden amongst the busy streets of London.

Tropecé con esta calle y encontré este encantador restaurante. El clima era agradable, así que decidimos quedarnos afuera. Los camareros formados por hombres, al menos cuando estuvimos allí, fueron muy amables. Los menús llegaron rápido. 2 de nosotros fuimos por el club sandwich, teníamos una hamburguesa y el falaffel wrap. Todo fue servido en diferentes platos con diferentes cubiertos. Lo cual fue original. No tuvimos que esperar mucho por la comida, pero no parecía que la comida fuera procesada. Parecía muy fresco. El ambiente era muy agradable y había varios otros restaurantes en la zona. Esto es como una perla escondida en las concurridas calles de Londres.

The theatre is small an does get warm. However the production of "gentlemen prefer blondes " was fantastic. Will look outfor other shows in the future. Had a great time.

Love the breakfast, service slow,

Lovely theatre to see something up close. Very friendly staff

A fairly basic establsihemnet offering a limited menu but all food freshly made and the staff so friendly. Very convenient for the Union Theatre as it's a part of it!

Great atmosphere, excellent show!

A lovely fringe theatre with high quality productions. Have been supporting them for decades

Un buen lugar para reponer fuerzas,tomar un café o descansar un rato, aunque algo elevado de precio

A friendly pub with a great outside space, and, the jewel in it's crown, a wonderful intimate theatre where I saw a wonderful production of Jerry Herman's music.

This venue is not your "usual" theatre, it has some quirks which personally I like but it does help to be forewarned. If you come via Southwark Station, go diagonally left, under the bridge and immediately right into the courtyard. Walk in and on the right is what appears to be a restaurant with a bar. The bar and restaurant are separate businesses. About an hour before curtain up a little sign is popped onto the bar counter and hey presto, it's now the box office too! You can now exchange your ticket for a numbered plastic disc. When the doors open, out goes the call, "Number 1" and all the "1's" go through and sit wherever you want in the theatre. (Repeat for all the subsequent numbers.) I went to see Market Boy and throughly enjoyed it. To sum the place up, a quirky but friendly place with a great atmosphere, friendly staff and good standard of productions.

Lovely. Inside and outside seating. Great atmosphere and staff.

This was my inaugural return to London after almost a decade of various ill health. To not have to deal with the pressures of metropolis and cut into this wonderful cosmopolitan idyl just off the Southwark Road, was not only a relief, but a fantastic surprise of happy smiles and welcoming staff. With it being affiliated to and part of The Union Theatre, a wonderful mix of creatives, city workers and audience intermix with the casual off-Street customers. Sitting in the wonderful alfresco areas or internally in the loft-look dining area with suitable contemporary rugged furniture, unlike many equivalent places, there is no falseness, no forced agenda, just lovely, cool and friendly staff. Sadly not having enough time to eat, although frankly I would have, the menus were varied, well thought out and fairly priced. My large Cappaccino was hot, and excellently presented, and again, sub-London priced! Part of my troubles is socio-anxiety, and I am very pleased to say that solely due to the staff and atmosphere of The Union Theatre Cafe, it was not exacerbated by anything - so, if there was an award, this place would be getting a “Mental Health Friendly Accreditation “. Thank you!

Can’t believe I’ve never reviewed this place before now. I stop in every time I’m in the area for the best cup of tea around. Was a bit of a regular in days gone by so always welcomed back. Ian & Howard always happy to greet new and regular customers both pretty quick to remember what you want. I’m sure it’s been hard work since the move from Over The Road but the attention to the customer hasn’t diminished.Proper Job.

Cozy theatre, wonderful ambience, reasonable prices considering location

I absolutely love this cafe in my local area. The food is great, but this place has so much more than just that. The staff are absolutely exceptional - the most friendly and most welcoming people you could ever hope to meet! My favourite dishes are the veggie breakfast on Sundays, and from the main menu, the omelettes and the halloumi wrap with fries.

Elegies was simply outstanding.

Really nice bar tucked away. Decent places to eat as well

So I use this place to have an early breakfast and catch up on emails if the su is out there is an off street seating or inside seating

Nous avons dégusté le Proper Job à £10. Un petit-déjeuner complet qui cale bien pour la journée. Avec la chance de le manger sur la terrasse.Les serveurs sont accueillants et serviables.

Great production house for newcomers to entertainment profession.

Amazing little theatre! I watched Market Boy, and it was a great, fun performance! The cafe/restaurant here serves great food and drinks! Nice, cosy atmosphere. Very quaint :)

We really enjoyed visits to this cafe and bar. It has a lovely off road setting when the sun is out and nice solid dining space inside. The food itself is the star of the show though. Worth a visit if attending the theatre. We paid £17.50 for a veggie platter that was enough for 4 people to snack at or 2 to dine well with. Coffee is only £2.20 even Latte, etc.